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Ewer (yutō) 15th–16th century (Muromachi period)

The earliest extant examples of Japanese lacquer wares are earthenware and wooden objects coated in red and black lacquer, which date from around 4500BCE during the Jōmon period (10 000–300BCE). From the sixth century, new lacquering techniques imported from China advanced the skills of Japanese artisans, expanding their repertoire of decorative effects. Negoro wares are named after Negoro-ji, a Shingon Buddhist temple south of Osaka where, from at least the fourteenth century, monks produced a variety of these distinctive lacquer objects for ceremonial and everyday use. Often emulating Chinese forms, Negoro wares were carved or turned in wood before being coated in layers of black lacquer superimposed with cinnabar lacquer. This very elegant ewer or yutō would probably have been made for serving hot water in tea ceremonies held at a Zen temple or shrine. Conforming to a form that apparently varied little from the Kamakura period (1185–1333), it embodies the refined simplicity that defines the appeal of the best Negoro wares.